Urban Barcode Project Team TINS
Program:
Urban Barcode Project
Year:
2017-18
Research Topic:
Biodiversity & trade
Taxonomic Group Studied:
Animals

Project:

Am I Putting Snail Mucus on my Face?
Students:
Torosa Rahman, Ida Wang, Nancy Zhang, Sadia Mohona
School:
Stuyvesant High School, Manhattan
Mentors:
Jessica Quenzer

Abstract:

Our goal for this experiment is to determine the authenticity of Korean cosmetic company claims of the use of snail slime within their products. Snail mucus, also known as snail filtrate, is advertised for its anti-aging properties. The snail slime is said to be harvested from domesticated common garden snails (Cornu aspersum). The products we plan on using claim to contain as much as 96% and 80%, respectively, snail secretion filtrate, which should provide ample amounts of DNA to sequence. In addition, we will be conducting tests on control samples, mucus from live snails, as a comparison.

Poster:

Team samples: